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Wicca

Witchcraft Belief in witchcraft is universal, but there is no universal definition of “witchcraft.” It has both nega­tive and positive connotations. In a neutral sense, witchcraft is SORCERY, the magical manipulation of supernormal forces through the casting of SPELLS and the conjuring or invoking of spirits. Such spells may be for either good or bad purposes. MAGIC and sorcery have been used by humankind since prehistoric times in an effort to control the environment and enhance daily life.

In most societies, however, witchcraft has been considered the harmful branch of sorcery. Anthropologists define witchcraft as an innate condition—the use of malevolent power by psy­chic means without need for ritual or charm. This describes many of the accused witches of the Inquisition days, but contemporary Western Witches work magic through spells. Witchcraft also involves the use of supernormal pow­ers, such as invisibility, shape-shifting, FLYING, the ability to kill at a distance, clairvoyancy and astral projection. During the Middle Ages and Renaissance, witchcraft was defined as evil magic, heresy and Devil-worship. The associations with evil and the DEVIL linger in mod­ern Western culture. Contemporary Witches have rede­fined Witchcraft as a reconstructed Pagan religion that worships the GODDESS and HORNED GOD and has no con­nection with Christianity or the Devil.

In addition, Pagan Witchcraft stresses the use of magic only for benevolent purposes, never for harm. Witchcraft as a religion has developed since the 1950s, but represents a small portion of the types of witchcraft still practiced by others, both in the West and elsewhere in the world. Most witchcraft is magical spell casting. It is usually regarded with fear and uncertainty, though it provides a necessary social function by enabling people to seek redress of wrongs and grievances, and alleviation from stress and troubles.

History of Western Witchcraft

The Inquisition. The Christian Church’s determined campaign to eradicate heretics, beginning at the start of the 13th century was turned on witches by the middle of the 15th century For nearly 250 years, witches were hunted down and executed as heretics, accused of wor­shiping the Devil. Most of the witch-hunts in Europe were conducted by the church, both Catholic and Protestant; in Britain, witchcraft was considered largely a civil crime, and witches were prosecuted by the secular arm. The number of victims of the Inquisition is unknown; esti­mates have ranged from 30,000 to 200,000. In 1598 Ludovicus a Paramo figured that 30,000 witches had been burned in 150 years. Modern historians estimate that 150,000 to 200,000 victims were executed and that approximately 100,000 of them came from Germany, where the worst persecutions took place. Contrary to a widely held contemporary popular belief, the Inquisition was not a persecution of witches per se; it was a persecution of heretics and enemies of the church. The “crime” of witchcraft became an effective way to accomplish the Inquisition’s aims. The practition­ers of folk magic, called witches, wizards, cunning men and so on, competed with the church. And the public’s fear of malevolent witchcraft was easy to seize upon in hunting down heretics. The public in turn used the church’s witch-hunting as a means of personal revenge, especially in disputes involving folk witches, and as way of getting rid of socially undesirable people. The association of witches with heresy occurred slowly over a period of centuries. Prior to the Middle Ages, witchcraft and sorcery were considered essentially the same. Sorcery was a civil crime, and witches and sor­cerers were punished under civil law, which usually called for fines, imprisonment and banishment. Heresy, on the other hand, was punishable by death under civil law as early as AD. 430, even though such laws were not rigor­ously enforced. Under Roman law, distinctions were made between white witchcraft or sorcery and black witchcraft. White witchcraft, which consisted largely of magical HEALING and DIVINATION, was not considered a crime, while black witchcraft, or harmful magic, was a crime.

Witchcraft: (From Saxen Wicca, a contraction of witega a prophet or sorcerer.) The cult of persons who, by means of satanic assistance or the aid of evil spirits or familiars, are enabled to practise minor black magic. But the difference between the sorcerer and the witch is that the former has sold his soul to Satan for complete dominion over him for a stated period, whereas the witch usually appears as the devoted and often badly treated servant of the diabolic power. But she is often mistress of a familiar. her bounden slave, and among certain savage peoples her occult powers are self-evolved. The concept of witchcraft was perhaps brought into being by the mythic influence of conquered races. It closely resembles in ritual and practice the demonism of savage races, from which it probably sprang. That is, the non-Aryan peoples of Europe who preceded the Aryan population, carrying on the practice and traditions of their religions more or less in secret, awoke in the Aryan mind the idea that such practices were of a “ magical “ character. This idea they would not fail to assist, and would probably exaggerate such details as most strongly impressed the Aryan mind, to which their gods would appear as” devils,” and their religious ritual as sorcery. This view has been combatted on the ground that the gap betwixt, say, the extinction of the pre-Aryan religion known as Druidism and the first notices of witchcraft, is too great to bridge. But Druidism continued to exist long after it was officially extinct, and British witchcraft is its lineal successor. The theory is further advanced that on the failure of the non-Aryan priesthood novices would be adopted from the invading race for the purpose of carrying on the old religion.. It seems to the present writer that the circumstance that the greater number of the upholders of this ancient tradition were women points to the likelihood of an early custom of the adoption or marriage of Aryan women by a non-Aryan people who would prefer to recruit their novices and devotees from the more plastic sex, naturally distrusting the masculine portion of an alien people to fall in with their religious ideas, and that the almost exclusive employ­ment of women in the cult (in Britain, at least) originated in this practice. Then individually all claimed to have been initiated. Says Gomme, “ I am inclined to lay great stress upon the act of initiation. It emphasises the idea of a caste distinct from the general populace, and it postu­lates the existence of this caste anterior to the time when those who practice their supposed powers first come into notice. Carrying back this act of initiation age after age, as the dismal records of witchcraft enable us to do for some centuries, it is clear that the people from time to time thus introduced into the witch caste carried on the practices and assumed the functions of the caste even though they came to it as novices and strangers. We thus arrive at an artificial means of descent of a peculiar group of superstition, and it might be termed initiatory descent.” This concept, thinks Gomme was influenced in the Middle Ages by another.

“Traditional practices, traditional formula, and traditional beliefs are no doubt the elements of witchcraft, but it was not the force of tradition which produced the miserable doings of the Middle Ages, and of the seventeenth century against witches. These were due to a psychological force, partly generated by the newly acquired power of the people to read the Bible for themselves, and so to apply the witch stories of the Jews to neighbours of their own who possessed powers or peculiarities which they could not understand, and partly generated by the carrying on of traditional practices by certain families or groups of persons who could only acquire knowledge of such practices by initiation or family teaching. Lawyers, magistrates, judges, nobles and monarchs are concerned with witchcraft. These are not minds that have been crushed by civilisation, but minds which have misunderstood it or misused it.”

White witchcraft was tolerated and usually considered beneficial; it served a useful function in society and was defended by the public. White witchcraft could become black witchcraft, however, if it caused harm or resulted in death. Under canon law, the already blurry distinctions between white and black witchcraft disappeared, until both were punished as heresy. From the eighth century on, sorcery was increasingly associated with harmful witchcraft, and witchcraft was increasingly associated with heresy. Beginning in the 11th century, heretics were sentenced with increasing fre­quency to death by burning. The church directed its efforts against the religious sects of the Albigenses, which flourished in eastern Europe and southern France; the Cathars, which spread over much of Europe; and the Waldenses (VAUD0IS), which appeared in the late 12th century in southern France.

These religious sects were also accused of sorcery, holding SABBATS and Devil-worship. In 1184 the church’s efforts became more formal with the direction of Pope Lucius III to bishops to investi­gate all deviations from church teachings. The papal Inquisition was established between 1227 and 1233. In 1233 Pope Gregory IX issued a bull that decreed that inquisitors would be Dominicans and would be answer­able only to the pope. During the same period, however, ecclesiastical belief in witchcraft was at a low due to the CANON EPISCOPI, which held that witchcraft was an illusion and belief in it was heresy This was reversed by a series of papal bulls against sorcery and the influence of the writings of demo­nologists and theologians, who became increasingly obsessed with witchcraft. One of the most influential the­ologians was THOMAS AQUINAS, who in the 13th century refuted the Canon Episcopi and endorsed beliefs that witches copulated with DEMONS, flew through the air, in 1473, 1478 and 1483.

The bull that turned the full force of the Inquisition against witches—as heretical sor­cerers—was that of INNOCENT VIII in 1484. Two years later, the Inquisitors Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger published the MALLEUS MALEFICARUM, which carried the bull as an introduction and set forth rules for identifying, prosecuting and punishing witches.

The Malleus quickly spread throughout Europe and was considered the pri­mary witch-hunter’s reference as the Inquisition picked up steam. By this time, the characteristics of witchcraft had been established as a DEVILS PACT; secret, orgiastic sabbats; infanticide and cannibalism; renunciation of Christianity; and desecration of the cross and Eucharist. In 1522 Martin Luther called sorcerers and witches “the Devil’s whores” and criticized lawyers for wanting too much proof to convict them. In 1532 the Carolina, the criminal code enacted under Charles V for the Holy Roman Empire states, distinguished between white and black witchcraft but provided punishment for both. Injurious witchcraft was punishable by death by burn­ing, as was homosexuality and sex with animals.

Witchcraft that did not cause injury or damage was punished according to the magnitude of the crime. Fortune­telling by sorcery or other magical arts called for torture and imprisonment. In 1572 a Saxon law code was enacted which called for the death penalty for all forms of witchcraft. Accusations of witchcraft usually started with simple sorceries: spells perceived to harm others. The accused usually had had an argument with a neighbor or had been overheard muttering complaints or curses. They were often tortured, sometimes in the most cruel and barbaric manner, until they died or con­fessed to black witchcraft and worshiping the Devil.

Invariably, the inquisitors also forced them to name accomplices. In this manner, whole villages were sometimes implicated, and mass executions took place. The most common form of execution in Europe was burning at the stake. If the victim was lucky, he or she was strangled first. Many were burned alive. Some trials apparently were motivated by the desire of the inquisitors to seize the properties of the accused. This appears to have been a factor in areas that suffered the most savage persecutions, such as Germany. The majority of victims, however, were of the lower classes—poor and often beggars. Most also were women; the Malleus Malefi­carum had firmly linked women to witchcraft. Many were social outcasts. The Inquisition against witches was confined to the Continent. The activities of the Inquisition were strongest in Germany, France and Switzerland in the 15th and 16th centuries, spreading a little into Scandinavia in the 16th and 17th centuries. Few Inquisitional activities against witches took place in Spain or Portugal, where distinc­tions were made between sorcery (largely divination) and witchcraft (Devil-worship and crimes associated with it).

The circumstances that touched off witch-hunts in vari­ous areas cannot be generalized. Political and social unrest were factors; trials increased in Germany and else­where in Europe during the Thirty Years War from 1618 to 1648. Bad crops years, plagues and infectious illnesses that spread throughout villages also contributed to searches for scapegoats. Beginning in the 16th century, the witch hysteria was countered by demonologists, such as REGINALD SCOT and JOHANN WEYER, who questioned the validity of beliefs about witches and opposed the tactics of witch-hunters. The witch hysteria peaked between 1560 and 1660, then tapered off over another 90 years.

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